Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school

For the Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school by Allan et al, blog post I decided to pick out quotes. The first quote that stood out to me is right in the beginning of the text. "The primary school is often thought of as a place of safety and innocence; a place where childhood is both nurtured and sheltered, and attempts to address what are seen as ‘adult’ issues are sometimes seen as intrusions into or threats to this safety zone. In this context, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) identities are made absent in one sense through the fact that they are not addressed in formal school contexts, while being made doubly present by the fact that they are taboo, and are brought into being through the popular discourses of homophobia." This very long quote stood out to me because I believe it is very crucial to talk to children about these issues in hopes to change the future. This idea reminded me of a video I watched on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8TJxnYgP6D8 This video allows you to see kids reacting to gay marriage first hand. I didn't realize how strongly kids feel towards these kind of subjects, it is an amazing thing. I think it is important for kids to form their own personal opinions on gay marriage and LGBT's rather than being influenced by their parents, religion, or society.

The next quote I chose was after Laura performed an alternative "lesbian" Cinderella, then a boy asked Cindy aka Laura if she was really gay. After saying yes, this was how she felt. "That felt horrible but I couldn’t avoid it, seeing as I was perfectly happy about answering all the other questions and I was doing this for the very reason I was aware that we hadn’t spoken much about lesbians ... so I wanted to present a positive lesbian to them who was comfortable about being a lesbian." I chose this quote because although Cindy told the class the truth, she said she felt "horrible," but she also aid she was happy with answering questions and giving 'lesbian' a positive look. I had mixed feelings with this statement because her feelings are contradicting. Lesbian's shouldn't feel horrible expressing their sexual orientation. I felt bad for Laura, having to transform herself into someone else in order to express her true self. It is ironic because Laura was the real teacher and Cindy was the "pretend" character, but in the end Cindy was real and Laura was fake. Laura could not be herself without being herself, if that makes sense. 

The last quote I chose is, "Their reaction made me feel very accepted and supported by them. Even  [a] boy who had described gay as ‘minging’ wanted to be sure I knew that he didn’t think I was." I found this section of the text to be very important. Reading that once one girl speaking out that there is nothing wrong with being gay, that started a movement in their classroom. Soon everyone was speaking out about people they knew who were gay or lesbian; all of the kids had nothing but positive things to say. I found this to be so important because it is movements like this, with young kids, that can make a difference in this world. Children have a lot to say and think a lot; people just need to give them a chance to voice their opinion on these touchy, "adult" conversations. 

 
A point I would like to bring up to the class is based off of the YouTube video I linked. What did you think of the kids reactions to those videos, to me it gave me faith in humanity. What is your opinion? 

Why can't she remember that?

I chose to write a think piece on Terry Meier's, Why can't she remember that? I chose this piece because the description jumped out at me, "the importance of storybook reading in multilingual, multicultural classrooms." This piece reminded me of my First Year Seminar called Grimm and Glitter. We talk about storybooks/fairytales and their effects on a child's life. I find that reading books as a child has a great impact on the way a child speaks when they are older. Even in college, reading is essential to one's language skills. When a child is younger their brains are more prone to obtaining a concept for life, such as verbal and nonverbal learning. Meier states, "Children who don't have many early book reading experiences learn their cultural lessons through interactions with family and other community members, from oral stories, and from observations of other people's behavior."Although this is true, I find this could also have a negative impact on a child's life. Some kids can be vulnerable to the idea of growing up and if they are observing the ways older people live their life, they could be receiving the wrong lessons. 

Thus the title of this piece, Why can't she remember that?, is very important. A child will have a heard time remembering and grasping language if they did not experience it when they were young. This reminds me how important it is to learn a different language younger. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11151726/Children-should-start-learning-languages-at-age-three.html This article, Children should start learning languages at age three, discusses a Harvard University study on learning additional languages increases critical thinking skills, creativity and flexibility of the mind in a young child. Thus the same goes for the importance of storytelling. 

Point to bring up in class:
What was your favorite childhood story to read? What kind of impact did it have on your life? Mine was Cinderella, to this day I still remember the story and believe in happily ever after although it is not realistic.

Silenced Dialogue

For this blog post I picked "Silenced Dialogue" by Delpit.
There were a few quotes that stuck out to

me. The first quote is, "they (white people) won't listen; white folks are going to do what they want to do anyway. It's really hard. They just don't listen well. No, they listen, but they don't hear - you know how your mama used to say you listen to the radio, but you hear your mother? Well they don't hear me." This stuck out to me because I think it is very true, not only for African Americans talking to white people, but any one. That is just my opinion. Some people, mainly white people I know, are so fixated on their own opinion, that they don't want to listen to anyone else's. Thus I do agree, I can see why this is mentioned and why it is frustrating. People want their opinions and thoughts to be heard, not for it to go in one person's ear and out the other.

The next quote I chose from Delpit's article is, "if schooling prepares people for jobs, and the kind of jobs a person has determines her or his economic status and, therefore, power, then schooling is intimately related to that power." I couldn't agree more with this statement. Education plays a major role in one's future. The way students develop can impact them for the rest of their life. People are not given the same opportunities as other's, which leads to them not being able to have the same job opportunities because they might not be equally qualified. Schooling and educators have so much power over our future. 

The last quote I have chosen is, “success in institutions – schools, workplaces, and so on – is predicted upon acquisition of the culture of those who are in power." When I read this statement I immediately thought of what Inspiring Minds told us during our training session in class. They gave us numbers on how many words children of different classes hear in an hour. Statistics showed that children of the middle-class heard more words in an hour than children in the lower-class. With this being said I do agree that one's success in school can be predicted upon their environment. 

( http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010015.pdf )Here is a PDF file I found called, "Status and Trends in  the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups." I found it very interesting, there are a bunch of facts that tie in with this article.

About me

Hey everyone! My name is Samantha Zambarano, I like to just be called Sam. I am a freshman at Rhode Island College and a commuter. I am also an elementary education with a special education focus major. I love kids and I love kids with special needs. I currently work with a girl who has special needs. We have a lot of fun, we work on life skills she needs to improve on as well as her schoolwork. A few interesting things about me, I was a cheerleader for 6 years, I am obsessed with cats, and I hate oranges. If I am not busy with school or work, I turn to my addicted, Netflix. I also love to hang with my friends and family! This semester has been going very well so far, besides the abundance of snow days. I am excited to see what this class has to offer and I am very excited to start tutoring as well. Hopefully this class is just the begin of an exciting future for each of us in the education field!

White Privilege

For our first blog post, I chose to reflect on the White Privilege reading, written by Peggy McIntosh. I found the idea behind this reading was very powerful. I loved the list of examples of "White Privilege" in McIntosh's everyday life. I see a lot of these examples in my everyday life as well. For example, "if a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race" and  "I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me." These two phrases I have heard in my everyday life as well. I come from a town that is not very diverse. Out of my whole High School, there were only about three or four African Americans, and very limited Chinese and Japanese students. There was almost no variety, not only in my High School, but in my town's community as well. I am not sure why, but that was how it was. Thus I have heard these phrases on many occasions from members of the white population. It is very sad how stereotypical people can be. Especially with high schoolers, I found that the white students could be very harsh when it came to racial comments such as the "N" word or comments against African Americans without thinking about the meaning behind it. This frustrates me so much because growing up in my hometown I witnessed people grow up being afraid of other races as well as thinking they are better than them. I always knew they were wrong, but I was still surrounded by these thoughts everyday. Whites are brought up not recognizing white privilege, but it is everywhere. Thus this brings up the idea of equality, this just proves the lack of equality there truly is. 

 
One comment I would like to raise discussion with the class is, if they witnessed any acts of white privilege occurring around them in high school. If they did or did not, I also would like to bring up the discussion of the diversity in their school. As I said earlier, I went to an almost all white high school, where I saw a lot of thoughts and comments regarding white privilege whether they realized it or not. Also what are your opinion's on words like the "N" word, being thrown around by both whites and blacks. When does the use of that word turn into racism then? When whites say it blacks get offended, but when blacks say it, it is okay? There is so much to discuss on this topic, what are your opinions?